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The Scenic Vision concept previews not only an upcoming model, but also a new powertrain – ahydrogen range extender. Genius or madness?
Renault thinks it’s cracked the car of the future. Not by creating an EV family crossover – but by adding a hydrogen fuel cell as a range extender.
The Scenic Vision previews a powertrain that takes the best of the battery-electric car (clean, quiet) and uses a hydrogen fuel cell to compensate for traditional BEV weaknesses (range, charging time, concerns about how ‘clean’ your electricity is).
In the Scenic Vision, shown at the ChangeNow summit in Paris, a battery pack drives an electric motor and can be charged like any other EV, by plugging it in. Here, however, the battery pack can also be charged by an onboard hydrogen fuel cell. Renault’s theory is that a hydrogen range extender removes any possible pollutants from the recharging of the battery pack by using hydrogen as a back-up fuel source, with its only emission being water.
The car defaults to running on battery-electric power, with the fuel cell activating when the battery’s state of charge is running low, or when data from the nav suggests that a mid-journey boost would be beneficial.
‘A mid-range electric and hydrogen powertrain allows us to reduce the size of the battery,’ said Renault chief Luca de Meo. ‘And, if we get into this cradle-to-grave approach, we think a car like this will have 75 per cent less impact than a classic battery-electric vehicle.’
Renault believes a powertrain like this will be workable, although the current lack of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure means cars relying solely on hydrogen fuel cells, such as the Toyota Mirai, don’t make sense for most buyers (although the chargers that do exist are very quick). Renault is already in a joint venture with US-based hydrogen fuel-cell developer Plug Power called Hyvia, building hydrogen range-extender Master ‘H2-Tech’ vans and buses. UK-based company Tevva is developing BEV trucks and trialling the fuel-cell powertrain idea for longer-distance, higher-payload vehicles.
IT CAN CHARGE BY PLUGGING IN, LIKE ANY EV – BUT ALSO BY AN ONBOARD FUEL CELL
And therein lies the rub; hydrogen fuel cells are commonly seen as a better answer to the future of haulage than private cars. ‘The majority of passenger car needs can be met with an EV, particularly in small countries like the UK,’ said head of hydrogen at Tevva, Harsh Pershad.
‘Hydrogen would only be needed in the largest or fastest cars, or
